[nealric]

My problem is that my profession requires me to read and write dense material all day. My brain can't handle more reading after I get home. 
 
I do try to knock off a book or two when I'm on vacation or have time off. 

 

[Zarathustra19]

As I'm getting my masters in English, I read a lot.  However, I have noticed the decline in scholarship you mentioned.  The undergrads in my Chaucer class seem to know absolutely nothing aside from how to mix drinks and seduce the opposite sex.  During discussions tonight, in fact, I got the distinct impression that I was hearing responses quoted directly from the sparknotes website.  As to the quality of writing, I blame texting and email.  Why bother writing "How's everything going with you today" when you can simply mash a few keys and come out with "How r u?"  My father is even falling prey to the disease of bad writing.
 
Zach
 
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Lately I've been obsessed with John Donne, and by now I have three editions of his poems and about four or five books of criticism (I especially recommend Desiring Donne).  

Have you tried his holy sermons?  I do not recommend those.  I have been spending the past three months or so reading he and Lancelot Andrews sermons and I would warn anyone away from those at this point.
 

 

[Maverickmonk]

I too find myself reading less and less. Having a standard courseload in college but not an english class has precluded my reading of too many books. During highschool, our A.P. English teacher was an adimant reader, and as a result we read A LOT. We'd go through a book every 2 weeks, and while I admit that I merely skimmed a number of them, I made it a point to read a large number of them. Even though I don't have the time to sit and "read" a book for my own sake, I have still been reading throughout this semester. I make a point to read the newspaper atleast twice a week (it was every day earlier in the semester), and I have been making a point to actually read the partially "optional" works of Plato and Descartes for philosophy. Over break I plan on reading as much as possible to make up for my laziness, and I have a stack of books waiting for me after finals week. I agree many people are reading less, but I believe the people who enjoy reading are still reading about as much as before.

 

[drclaw]

I love to read; however, at this moment I have no time to read novels.  Instead I am constantly reading sections from my textbooks, or head-fi.
Now I'm lucky to find time to read the school newspaper. 
 
I remember, as a kid, going to the library several times a week and getting armfuls of books.   I would sit and read for hours.  I read all of the Hardy Boys and Boxcar Children and what not.    In Jr. High we had a reading program where we would check out books from the library and take a test on them after we had read the book.  When I finished Jr. High I had read over 350 books!  I wish I still had that amount of time to read.  
 
I have also noticed that my grammar skills have gone to hell.  I used to be a Grammar Nazi, now, not so much.  
 
 
John

 

[Confispect]

Quote:

I love to read; however, at this moment I have no time to read novels.  Instead I am constantly reading sections from my textbooks, or head-fi.
Now I'm lucky to find time to read the school newspaper. 
 
I remember, as a kid, going to the library several times a week and getting armfuls of books.   I would sit and read for hours.  I read all of the Hardy Boys and Boxcar Children and what not.    In Jr. High we had a reading program where we would check out books from the library and take a test on them after we had read the book.  When I finished Jr. High I had read over 350 books!  I wish I still had that amount of time to read.  
 
I have also noticed that my grammar skills have gone to hell.  I used to be a Grammar Nazi, now, not so much.  
 
 
John

I need to read these! was planning on it at least....yes and Grammer skills are shot, sad really.

 

[Happy Camper]

I still enjoy a book. It's portable, don't need a battery, won't strain your eyes. I recently went to check on my current series and found 4 new books for Christmas. Thank you Brandon Sanderson for making it interesting again.

 

[Sil3nce]

Quote:

I still enjoy a book. It's portable, don't need a battery, won't strain your eyes. I recently went to check on my current series and found 4 new books for Christmas. Thank you Brandon Sanderson for making it interesting again.

Omg. win
The Way of Kings was amazing.

 

[tasteful]

I think the amount of reading I did dropped off quite a bit after I got a laptop about 4 years ago. Since maybe a year or two ago, I've definitely been back to reading, though I'm not a avid reader per se.
 
We got broadband this year and now I read a crapton more than ever online. Some of it's quality crafted reading, via Instapaper and good blogs and some of it is informational and some is entertaining.
 
I also got a Kindle a few months ago and enjoy using it with Instapaper and Google Reader. I also have a bunch of out of copyright books from Project Gutenberg, many of which I hope to get around to reading. I don't buy ebooks from Amazon because I don't really buy books and I'm not down with the DRM / terms of use. I personally don't really need the experience of a physical book, though there are of course books that need to be physical. Plus, it's a lot easer to hold a Kindle than a paperback.
 
Quote:

I have also noticed that my grammar skills have gone to hell.  I used to be a Grammar Nazi, now, not so much.  
 
 
John

My grammar skills still feel pretty intact. Then again, I finished high school this year and I cowrite a blog.

 

[jilgiljongiljing]

Read casually every night for about 20 minutes. Nothing major, non-fiction mostly.
 
But you know whats more shocking. I can barely write without my fingers aching now. I'm so used to typing and have no need for writing anything ever other than to sign for stuff that I have almost forgotten how to write. I can barely read what I write myself now, the hand writing is horrendous. Not to mention, by line 2, I have pain in my fingers. This coming from an education system that totally relied on writing pages and pages of answers for any question.
 
Sigh...I wonder if its really of any consequence though, the rate at which things are moving, I hardly find a scenario where writing is absolutely necessary.
 
As for reading, its not going away anytime soon, infact with e-readers, reading has picked up quite a bit. But if you are talking about reading physical books, then yes, soon only the reference works will be physical books, almost everything is going to go into digital. But writing, there is a real concern there, will writing be a lost art of some sort in the future?

 

[fatcat28037]

I love to read. It's very relaxing to sit back in your favorite chair with a cat on you lap and a good book. I read a couple dozen books a year, some I buy the rest come from the Library. When I find a new author I like I go to www.fantasticfiction.com and get a list of everything he/she has written and I start at the first and read them all in order.

 

[Lazarus Short]

When I was young, I read a lot.  Later, I got more chosey, and later still, I began to see authors' mistakes, both in ideas and style.  Now, I'm writing my own book, but I doubt if many will agree with my conclusions.  My daughter, BTW, is writing a sword & sorcery novel.

 

[Carbonman]

Writing certainly sharpens you critical reading capabilities, and vice versa.  I've gained a real appreciation for all authors after years of putting my thoughts on paper and having various readers critique (or just criticize) my finished efforts.  It's not easy stringing thousands of words into a thought or concept in a way that gets people wanting to read it.  
 
Quote:

When I was young, I read a lot.  Later, I got more choosy, and later still, I began to see authors' mistakes, both in ideas and style.  Now, I'm writing my own book, but I doubt if many will agree with my conclusions.  My daughter, BTW, is writing a sword & sorcery novel.

 

[Welly Wu]

I just read these e-books on my Amazon Kindle:
 
Ayn Rand's Anthem
James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans
Sun Tzu's The Art of War
 
I am currently reading Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage.
 
I used to read a lot of classics, contemporary American and British poems, plays, and novels along with the occasional Tom Clancy novels when I was pursuing my Liberal Arts and English Creative Writing degree programs years ago. I bought the Amazon Kindle because I knew it would light up my passion for reading which became quite stagnant after I graduated. I spend one hour reading every day now. I have not had to pay for any of those out of copyright titles in the Kindle bookstore.